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All Saints Day is a good time to meditate on what a saint is. In many cases they’re simple people who were either martyred or persecuted for their fearless dedication to God. I grew up in a time when we…

The City of Independence, Ohio provides a welcome packet to new residents. Among the services and amenities detailed is a program called “25 & Alive,” designed to help parents get their children through this obstacle course called life until they…

If you’ve seen “The Chosen,” the crowd-funded streaming TV series about the life of Christ, you know its creators have taken some liberties with the gospels to make them more accessible to modern (and young) audiences. One liberty is their…

People suffering with some misfortune are often told “Pray. It really works.” Some might argue this is a bit disrespectful. To God, I mean. Trying to make something work requires calculation and assumes some level of control on our part.…

The New-Hollywood stars who tried helping their kids cheat their way into college could have learned a valuable lesson from the ghost of an Old-Hollywood star: Boris Karloff. In one of his lesser known roles for a 50s-era TV anthology…

My lifelong buddy and I took a walking tour of the cemetery where many of our ancestors are buried. One of the graves on my must-see list was that of my great grandparents on my father’s side. I only knew…

Many non-Catholics just don’t get some of the sacramental rituals we Catholics follow. Some see them as separate from the good works that good people of all faiths (and none) do every day. They even cite Matthew 15:7, in which…

Many of humanity’s cynics consider the cross, death, and resurrection “narrative” of Christianity a deeply rooted myth. And for them, so is the forgiveness Christianity promises them. Sunday’s readings expand on the forgiveness that Jesus modeled throughout his earthly ministry—up…

In the medieval era of the Holy Roman Empire, Eckhart von Hochheim was a well-known cancellation target. Today he’s better remembered as Meister (Master) Eckhart, a German theologian, philosopher and mystic, but in those ancient times our Church considered him…

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal Op-Ed section (“Free Markets and the Meaning of Life”) states that “believing life has meaning helps individuals thrive,” and that “people who view their decisions as existentially weighty cope better with stress…